Eastern States 100 is my favorite race. By far. And it’s not even really close. I love everything about the race, the course, and the organization behind it (Eastern States Trail-Endurance Alliance). Every year I’m excited to head back to Little Pine State Park to start my circumnavigation of Pine Creek. ES100 is the final race in the PA Triple Crown, which also includes Hyner 50K and World’s End 100K. It’s been on my bucket list for years now, however I never get around to scheduling it. Hyner typically conflicts with my spring 100 miler and since hundreds are my obsession it never makes the cut. There’s also a thing called the Black List, which is the Triple Crown plus Black Forest 100K. That sounds pretty cool so I can’t just do the Triple Crown when I finally get around to it. Though if I’m going to attempt the Black List, I might as well add Ironstone 100K for the Grand Slam Sufferfest. I’m attracted to doing a series of races, but that’s an awful lot of 100Ks for someone who doesn’t really like 100Ks.
The ESTEA Gauntlet
ESTEA was originally created to manage ES100 a number of years ago. They started up the Ironstone 100K back in 2022. Then they took over managing the Eagleton Trail Challenge in 2023 or 2024. This year they created a new race called The Void. This one immediately appealed to me (160 miles in tunnel) so I was among the first to sign up for it. Eagleton added an 86 mile option this year which I initially dismissed when I heard about it because it’s not a hundred. Seems like a lot of work not to get a hundred mile finish. But when considered as part of a series?
- Eagleton 86 Mile – May
- Ironstone 100K – July
- Eastern States 100 Mile – August
- The Void (160 Mile) – November
Now we’re talking. I was already signed up for the second two races so it was only a matter of squeezing in the other two races. I had Viaduct 100M penciled in for July, however can easily swap Ironstone in for it. Eagleton is going to be the challenge though. I had planned to do a 24 hour race in May with my son who’s gunning for his first 100 mile finish. Eagleton is the weekend before so obviously can’t (shouldn’t?) do both. Running Eagleton instead would allow me to crew for him which is probably the better parenting choice. The bigger issue is that Eagleton is only 2 weeks after Coast to Coaster 232M. And doing some research on the race, it appears to be ES100 level difficulty (i.e. mountainous trails) while I’m spending the next 2 months running flattish roads as prep for C2C232 and HOTS in June. While not ideal training, I’m planning a massive amount of mileage in March so fitness/endurance shouldn’t be an issue. Hopefully, two weeks is enough time to recover.
It’s probably worth mentioning that this isn’t a thing yet. Eagleton 86 and The Void are completely new races this year. There is no website. There are no awards. There is no series. There is no doubt that I could care less about any of that. I’m not attempting this for recognition. I’m going after this because the ESTEA is putting on four races that I really want to do. Each one has a different distance. They have different vibes. They also span the entire spectrum of formats from gnarly mountainous trails to 48 hours on a road in a tunnel. My guess is the only thing they’ll have in common is a finisher rate of about 50%. And if that’s not a gauntlet of races, then I don’t know what is.